People news from the 08/08/06 News Brief

MANUFACTURERSInspire Pharmaceuticals has hired two new VPs, Bart Dunn as VP, business development and Raymond Hines as VP, associate general counsel.
Dunn joins Inspire after a 16-year career at Pfizer, most recently serving as director of business development in the corporate strategic planning group. In this capacity, he led multi-disciplinary teams through the evaluation, recommendation, structuring and execution of strategic acquisitions, alliances, product/technology licensing and divestitures. Hines spent five years as VP and legal counsel of business development at King Pharmaceuticals before joining Inspire. At King, he was lead attorney on business development transactions, including mergers, acquisitions, collaborations, in-licensings, and divestitures. Prior to King, Hines was senior counsel at GlaxoSmithKline.
The company also announced the promotion of Jenny Kobin from senior director, investor relations, to VP of investor relations and corporate communications. Kobin has been with Inspire since August 2004 and has more than 15 years of experience in investor relations and corporate communications.
Metrics, a contract pharmaceutical company headquartered in Greenville, NC, has promoted Gerald Sakowski to SVP of business operations. Sakowski joined Metrics in 1997 as director of marketing and sales, later becoming director of business development. He was promoted to VP of business development in 2002.
AGENCIES
Palio Communications, an inVentiv Health company, has promoted Dan Bobear to SVP/director of client service from SVP/account services. Bobear has been a part of the Palio team since 2004. Paul Harrington has been promoted to SVP/creative director from SVP/associate creative director. Harrington has been a member of the Palio team since 2002. Todd LaRoche has been promoted to SVP/managing director of creative from senior vice president/creative director. LaRoche joined Palio in 2001. Ken Messinger has been promoted to SVP/creative director from SVP/associate creative director. Messinger has been with Palio since 2002. Andy Smith has been named SVP/director of global operations from SVP/director of operations. Smith joined Palio in 2002.
Medicus International promoted Miranda Gladding to director of client services, New York, reporting directly to the managing director, Peneli Oliver and supporting the existing client service teams located in the New York office.
MEDIASlack Publishing has promoted Jay Lewis to managing editor of Infectious Disease News a newspaper dedicated to infectious disease specialists. Lewis has been with Slack for more than four years as a staff writer on the Endocrine Today, Diabetes Vital and Today in Cardiology staffs.